On the difference between a pastiche and a parody, Mel Brooks' comedies Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein are mixtures of stock elements from the original Westerns and Horror Films, respectively, e.g., sheriffs, Indians, bad guys, castles, hunchbacks, etc. They are pastiches (mixtures) which ma...

Far outnumbered by the "stipecephalus," or blockhead.

A "pastiche" is both an imitation and a hodgepodge. The two senses of "pastiche" with examples are discussed here:

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Pastiche

Contrary to what one might expect, replacing the prefix "de" meaning "away" in "deference" with its opposite, "in" does not produce an antonym of "deference," but "inference," a word which is neither a synonym nor an antonym. (Is there a na...

According to my researches, Toxophilus "was (not only) a treatise on archery but it was was also an argument for writing in the vernacular: in English. You could say he (Roger Ascham) shot two birds with one arrow." http://wordsmith.org/words/toxophilite.html A Wikipedia article expands (o...

Not always.

bumptious: humorously hunchbacked, e.g. Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein.

There's little to do except get out of the way of this one. Wikipedia (the Rodney Dangerfield of authorities) does have a warm song associated with Hog, Hog,...you say it! Haste ye back, we loue you dearly, Call again you're welcome here. May your days be free from sorrow, And your friends be ever n...

Animals dissemble through mimicry and camouflage.

Are you in an arroyo, Philip? There was an echo.

NOEL, noel,....

Where are the trogs of yesteryear, Luke? Take your trog, is he retired with brain damage from a career in pro football? A happy grandfather dandling his grandson on his knee? I personally knew no trogs, being of modest un-troglike dimensions. Water seeks its own level, bulk its bulk. I do recall the...

Hoppius' Amoenitates Academicae (1763) classified primates (Anthropomorpha) into the following categories: 1. Troglodyta Bontii, 2. Lucifer Aldrovandi, 3. Satyrus Tulpii, 4. Pygmaeus Edwardi According to a blog on the "Frontiers of Zoology," 2. refers to the Gibbon, 3. to the Chimpanzee, a...

And speaking of coincidences, "scaramouche," the name of a stock character in Italian comedy, is unrelated to "gobemouche" it turns out. Different "mouches." See http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=scaramouche Just thought I'd bring this dead end to your attention....

Government Gobbledegook "is dying a slow painful death" according to a recent news article : http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/19/12840181-government-gobbledygook-its-dying-a-slow-painful-death?lite Across the pond, actor Richard Gere was awarded a Golden Bull award for his outstandi...

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

1563 Noël is a main belt asteroid with an orbital period of 1184.8564680 days (3.24 years).
The asteroid was discovered on March 7, 1943.

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1563

That swaddled infants resemble swaddled mummies is a well-known if unsettling fact. Infants enter life swaddled; Pharoes once departed the same way. Why? TLC, I suppose. My limited online research shows that if Christ were born today he might not have been swaddled because "Aside from increased...